Locative Media & The City

I have lived in a few cities so far including Seoul in Korea, Brisbane in Australia, Buffalo and Brooklyn in U.S. Every time I move to a new place I wander around the city with a map or without a map. This kind of wandering is letting go of my physical body and following my emotional reactions. Every chance and decision will be made by an emotional state.

I map the place by the peak of the moment, neighborhood, landmark building, aesthetic environment, current of people, context and sound. The act of mapping is very environmental and dependents on the city and at the same time it is separated from the environment and independent of the city.

I consider the murmur project as a participatory art and process art involving the public through the use of cell phones. There was an interactive exchange of experiences as an open art form. The public participation becomes part of the work of art. The Murmur project succeeds in doing this by bringing into the discourse the public space. It succeeds as a Participatory art and a Locative media art by bringing in as a component the public in relation to a psycogeographical discussion of certain areas of Toronto. It involves the public as a participant in the art project (some selective some random) and that participation makes the art process expend over time.

It is strange that I found out that Jacque Tati designed and constructed the whole city for playtime in my third time viewing it. In viewing the film this last time along with reading Lynch’s “The City Image and its Elements” and Debord’s “Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography” I saw, from a production designer’s perspective, the city as an element of metaphor. Playtime’s artificial city reflects Tati’s observation of modern society. Tati presents a monotonous, transparent and alienating space where the individual is integrated in a nihilistic existence.

The regularity of the materials and shapes used in the construction of the city creates a generic view of modern society. As Lynch describes, the landmark is a point of reference, and Tati, by showing the reflection of the Eiffel tower on the modern glass building, identifies the city as Paris. By using generic modern city structures Tati transforms the lives of Parisians into nonspecific urbanites.